Move to call on ASA board to resign over Semenya

UNIVERSITY Sport South Africa has called on its athletics committee to demand that the board of Athletics South Africa resign.

UNIVERSITY Sport South Africa has called on its athletics committee to demand that the board of Athletics South Africa resign.

The Ussa committee has issued a statement saying the ASA leadership had failed the country by handling the Caster Semenya gender tests issue badly.

In addition, the committee urged the South African Sport Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) to appoint an interim board to run athletics in South Africa.

They also want the ASA to support a representative athletics committee elected by current and former athletes.

Currently athletes are represented by joint 400m record-holder Hendrick "The Hammer" Mokganyetsi on the ASA board.

But the Ussa national executive committee has distanced itself from their athletics committee's statement, apologising to ASA and promising to deal with the matter internally.

In a statement issued by Ussa president Sanele Madlala, Madlala said the ASA-Semenya issue was not discussed with thefederation before the statement was issued.

"The content of the letter was not formally discussed with the national executive committeeand does not reflect the position of the NEC.

"Furthermore, according to the rules and regulations of Ussa, the powers of the NEC are to assume overall responsibility for the management of the affairs of Ussa.

"The president shall communicate policy on the behalf of Ussa.

"We are in full support of the initiatives taken by government and Sascoc on investigating the issue and we believe that the two structures are capable of solving the matter amicably for the benefit of sport in SA."